The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-10-06
RANDOLPH A. SHOTWELL.
A NOBLE TRIBUTE TO THE
MEMORY OF THE DEAD.
Womanly Devotion to Honor and Merit
Admirably Displayed.

Rebecca Cameron, of Hillsboro, is a
graceful defense from an accomplished
hand Her womanly devotion tc
honor and merit is most admirably
displayed therein and her able and
womanly tribute to Captain Randolph
A. Shotwell should bring the blush to
The face Of the cowardly assailants oi
his bright and Interchangeable reputa-
ton. We read it with pleasure both
because of its defense of the innocent
dead and because it exhibits wo-
manly character as brave as it is lovely
and Christian. For the benefit of our
readers, we print the letter in full:
Ny DEAR SIRs Nothing save seri-
Gus i'll could have SO long delayed the
expression Of my sincere and grateful
appreciation of your ready and chival-
rou< defense Of Captain Randolph Alb
bott Shotwell's memory against the
false, unworthy and cowardly defama-
ton of an anonymous slanderer.
1t is a wholly incomprehensible thing
why any one-even the basest and
most malignant of his enemies-should
have made SO unwarranted an attack
upon the memory Of man who for
two long years has been beyond the
reach of praise or blame.
Nothing could be gained by such an
assault, and much was to be lost by it
if the anonymous writer held any sort
of character among his fellow men.
For there is a certain inborn instinct
of decency in most men that forbids
wanton abuse of the dead. An in
stinct as old as humanity's self, find
ing utterance even in the Pagan world
in the old familiar Latin maxim: De
m0,7uls nil nf56e 6oaum.
Happily for his friends, Captain
Shotwell's name is above the stain of
SANDER No injurious charge makes
the least dimness upon his fair name.
The whole life of the man contradicts
the charges that-for political purposes
only-werc fabricated against him,
and l challenge each one of his ac-
cusers and judges to dare to admit
within his secret soul that he ever be-
lieved one single charge upon which
he was tried and PREDETERMINED
SENTENCE executed against him.
One day the accused and the &C
cusers will meet before the bar of the
Great Judge eternal, and IN that day
may God remember the mercy that
they forgot. Had Captain Shotwell
been guilty he could easily have es-
capped before his trial $50 called) when
the opportunity was afforded him
while in Rutherford Jail, and any man.
however innocent, governed by less
noble impulses than swayed the heroic
soul of the knightly gentleman O.
whom We speak, might we'll have
availed himself of those opportunitie:
to escape from the horrible tortures in
flicted upon him within those loath
some prison walls. 1t is not generally
known, but it is none the less a fact
that after Captain Shotwell's RELEASE
from Albany penitentiary, the mar
/ i'm Justice, the ostensible "viCtim' O
the Rutherford raid, came to him ant
begged forgiveness for his part in th'
prosecution, and said be had done al
he could to make amends by volun
tarily signing the petition for his re
lease. OF course Captain Shotwel
forgave him, for such soul never har
bored either malice or revenge. Ha'
Captain Shotwell really been the au
thor of the alleged "outrages" from
which Justice pretended to have sui
fered, is it likely that Justice woul'
have asked for his forgiveness, that h
would "let bygones be bygones?"
] do not as rule take it upon my
self to connect the visitations of Go,
with the sins of men but in the cas-
of Justice, who broke his neck fallin
off a piazza, and in the lingering an
agonizing death from cancer of tn
throat of Macarthur, the Rutherfor
jailor, who denied the helpless prison
ers in his charge water to slake thei
thirst in the burning heat of summe
weather, and lnf;ct voluntary torture
upon them; in these two cases | d
think the Hand of God touched ther
thus in direct punishment for their sir
As said before, what is to be game
by a resurrection of ialsehoods lik
those published by the Edenton E,
Qnn tt's correspondent l cannot SET
Captain Shotwell stands in no man
way; he has passed out of the arena {
men:
Where beyond these voices there
peace"
And surely it serves no purpose {
jealousy, envy, or even malice to see
to dishonor the memory of one VIII
wore so worthily
THE white flower of a blameless life"
1t is IMPOSSIBLE to altar the opinio
of those who knew him, or of the pee
pie in the State at large. 1t would L